I have just been offered a position as a teacher of a short ESL course that is run by one of the local educational providers. According to the course outline, the objectives are the following ones; that by the end of the course, the students will have improved their skills in the following;

The previous teacher for the course, used authentic texts to encourage the students to understand the content and study the grammar rules of English. She also used audio and audio-visual material and pair and group discussion. I propose using a similar method.

For the reading component, the course content will include newspapers and other authentic texts, whilst the content for the listening component will be everyday spoken conversations that tell stories and the one for the writing component everyday genres, notes, letters and postcards. On top of this the content for the listening component will be discussions on topical issues, whilst the content for the grammar component will involve learning from authentic texts whilst that of the vocabulary component will involve the study of everyday texts. The course involves 6 weekly 2 hour sessions. I propose to include aspects of each objective in each lesson. Would you advise that or not? If not, why not?

I should point that the fellow who offered me the work told me that their ESL courses are aimed at speakers who are at the intermediate stage but that in reality the proficiency levels of the speakers varies considerably.

The aim of this course is that students are provided with a relaxed environment in which they will gain practice and confidence using English.

The organisation which has offered me the work teaching that course has also offered me work teaching an 8 week long course called 'Everyday Reading and Writing'. This course is aimed at (1)providing students with an opportunity to become more confident in reading and writing for everyday tasks, work and study (2) examining the common problem people have in expressing themselves clearly on paper and (3) enabling the students to read and comprehend what they have read. This course is aimed at native speakers and non-native speakers of English. The objectives of this course are as follows; (1) to explore word meanings and structures, (2) to experience different practical learning activities like written exercises, discussions and readings, (3) to have inspirational topics to encourage writing and use newly acquired skills and (4) to have a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

The teaching methods involve discussions, written exercises and readings and the course content the study of the writing process, punctuation, spelling, grammar, reading, skimming, the use of the memory, writing structures, editing and a revision of the skills learnt.

The sessions will be 2 and 1/2 hours in length. How do you propose that I structure the lessons?

I should point out that I do need your advice on these matters withing the next couple of days. I apologise for this. However, I was only offered the work yesterday, Australian time and the materials are about to get sent to the printer due to the fact that the courses beging in February.